In announcing his 100-person transition team, King County Executive-elect Girmay Zahilay put housing issues front-and-center. He faces a short runway as the first new leader elected at the county level since 2009, and will take office on November 25.

In Tuesday's drop, Urbanist-endorsed progressive challenger Katie Wilson expanded her narrow lead over Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell. She now leads by 1,346 votes or 0.49%. With very few ballots remaining, Wilson is on the cusp of avoiding a machine recount.

The contentious proposal, approved by a 6-3 vote in March, legalized residential uses in a small slice of SoDo. But a state board pointed out several areas where the City cut corners ahead of that vote, nullifying the change.

Lowering speed limits on residential streets to 20 mph has already been implemented in cities like Seattle, Portland, and Tacoma, and has been associated with a significant drop in high-end speeding. The Bothell City Council endorsed making the change citywide, pushing back on the idea of implementing a limited pilot program first.

Progressive challenger Katie Wilson now leads incumbent Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell by a razor-thin 91-vote margin after another batch of votes were counted Monday. Wilson appears well-positioned to pull off a dramatic comeback from a deficit of more than 11,000 votes in early results.

Leaders from across the Pacific Northwest recently gathered at the Cascadia Innovation Corridor Conference in Seattle and reaffirmed their commitment to building high-speed rail linking Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver, B.C. President Trump has created headwinds for the project by slashing transit funding and slapping tariffs on Canadian imports.

Seattle City Attorney-elect Erika Evans chatted with The Urbanist about what's next after her resounding victory in the November election, unseating Seattle's lone Republican office-holder.

Chicago has gotten a lot of national attention this year, but not for the reason we'd usually hope. Ray Delahanty of CityNerd, however, made...